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  TILL DEMON DO US PART

  Paranormal Wedding Planners Book 6

  AE JONES

  Table of Contents

  About TILL DEMON DO US PART

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Books by AE Jones

  Excerpt from IN SICKNESS AND IN ELF

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Till Demon Do Us Part

  Sixth book in a series by RWA Golden Heart® and Booksellers’ Best winning author, AE Jones.

  Love is magic.

  What’s a faerie to do when the demon equivalent of a grizzly bear needs her healing powers? Rush to his side. Even though the man wants nothing to do with her, the more time Darcinda spends with the demon, the more his noble and caring sides are revealed.

  McHenry wants to be left alone with his forge and his metals. His grumbling hermit persona scares most people away. The last person he wants on his land is the faerie healer who isn’t intimidated by him. At all. The longer she stays, the more he realizes she’s a light in his dark, lonely world.

  But he can’t let anyone near his heart.

  Especially when a secret he’s been hiding threatens to destroy them all.

  When the truth comes out, can those he pushed away be his salvation? Including the exasperating healer with the sea-green eyes and selfless heart?

  When I first started this series, I shared the idea about a paranormal wedding planner business with several of my writer friends. One dear friend jokingly declared that I should name a faerie after her.

  On a whim, in the second book of the series I introduced a secondary character by the name of Darcinda. She is a free-spirit and straight-shooter who also happened to be a powerful faerie. And that whim became a character that appeared again and again throughout the series.

  And as her character grew, I realized that she needed her own book. If it hadn’t been for my writer friend Darcy Woods, Darcinda wouldn’t have been born and McHenry wouldn’t have found his true love.

  How can I not dedicate this book to the idea girl? This one is for you, Darcy.

  Flame wields the power of creation…

  Chapter 1

  McHenry took a deep breath as he stood back and used his sleeve to wipe sweat off his brow.

  The forge in front of him billowed flames like the bowels of hell—the perfect blistering temperature for the type of metal he’d just immersed in it. A few seconds more and he’d remove the bar and begin to mold it into something.

  He wasn’t sure what the something was yet, but the metal would tell him what it wanted to be. It always did.

  He reached into the forge with metal tongs and held the bar aloft, the end bright orange with just the right hint of yellow. The flames licked his hands and would have burned them if they weren’t bespelled to take the heat. Placing the molten end of the rod on the anvil to his left, he picked up a mallet and pounded it a couple of times to test its give. A couple of quick taps and the metal flattened easily.

  After a few more taps, the metal began to take shape into a flat strip. There it is. Something decorative. Maybe he could send it as a belated wedding gift to Jack and Julia.

  He paused in the middle of working the metal. When was the last time he’d been inspired to make a gift for someone? And since the first time he’d met Julia, she accused him of working with supernatural supremacists, his urge to make something for her was even more surprising. He’d blustered and pushed her away, but unlike everyone else who scurried from him, she wasn’t afraid.

  And with Julia came her werewolf mate, Jack, and all his other teammates and their mates. And as much as he tried to scare them all away, they weren’t put off by his blustering ways either. But he couldn’t let them get too close. Couldn’t let anyone get too close.

  Jack and Julia had been married for months now. They invited him to their wedding, but he wasn’t able to attend. Of course he couldn’t tell them the real reason he couldn’t go, not if he wanted his reputation as a cranky hermit to remain intact.

  Not that he cared a fig about propriety or what people thought of him.

  He liked being alone. In the past there was only him and his two nephews to worry about. And now both Andrew and Jamie were grown, he didn’t need to worry about them—much. Although he hadn’t been seeing much of Andrew lately, which meant it was time to do some investigating.

  A shadow fell over the door and McHenry turned. As if his earlier thoughts had summoned his nephew, there was Andrew, standing just outside. Normally Andrew burst into a room, but this time he hesitated, as if afraid to enter, which set McHenry’s alarms to clanging.

  He nodded to his nephew. “Where’ve you been hidin’ lately?”

  Andrew blanched, which ratcheted up McHenry’s already jangling nerves even further.

  “Spit it out, son. It can’t be that bad, now.”

  “I’ve met someone.”

  McHenry couldn’t keep from smiling. “Have you? Is it serious?”

  “Very.”

  “Why have you been keepin’ it a secret?”

  Andrew looked away.

  The evasion set all sorts of bad scenarios to running in his head. Andrew knew better than to be cavorting with a married lass. “What is it?”

  “She’s been visiting the Burrow, so we were taking things slowly.”

  “That sounds like a smart idea, son. You’re still young.”

  “I’m twenty-five.”

  He said it with such determination, McHenry didn’t dare smile at him. In McHenry’s eyes, he would always be the defiant young boy who came to live with him a dozen years ago.

  “So tell me about the lass.”

  “She’s amazing. She’s beautiful and so smart. And she makes me laugh. Tells me I’m too serious and I need to enjoy life.”

  McHenry liked what he was hearing so far. “You said she’s visitin’. Who in the village is she staying with?”

  Andrew took a breath before responding. “She’s been staying for the past few months with Corinne, her aunt.”

  McHenry’s stomach twisted. No no no. Please be a niece from her husband’s side. “What is her name?”

  “Selina.”

  Hells. “Do you know who her father is?”

  Andrew gulped. “I do. I mean I didn’t, not until today.”

  “Damnation, Andrew! I told you not to get anywhere near the demon king.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “No, you wen
t near his daughter!” McHenry bellowed. “Break it off!”

  Andrew scowled. “No. I love her. We want to be together. And we did a handfasting, like you told us they do in Scotland.”

  McHenry groaned. He should never have told the boys about that damn tradition.

  “Do you honestly think her father will be okay with this? He probably has some hoity-toity demon lined up for her.”

  “I wanted to ask her father’s permission to marry her, but Selina wants to talk to him first.”

  At least one of them was thinking clearly. The girl had probably saved his nephew from being incinerated.

  “How do you think this is goin’ to end up, Andrew? He won’t let you marry her.”

  Andrew fisted his hands at his sides. “I love her and she loves me! I don’t care who her father is.”

  McHenry slammed the mallet down, and the anvil shook slightly. He cursed himself for his recklessness.

  The anvil continued to vibrate even though he hadn’t swung the mallet again.

  He froze as the air buzzed with static electricity, as if heralding a storm.

  Various metals in his shop vibrated, then began clanking together in an out-of-tune chorus.

  Andrew looked around. “What’s happening?”

  Only one thing could cause this.

  “I think your lass just told him.”

  The shards, bars, and hunks of metal levitated from the workstations, pointing toward them, hovering like a swarm of metallic wasps.

  McHenry grabbed his nephew and shoved him toward the door, shielding him from the metal rocketing toward them.

  “Run!”

  One of the strongest powers is the power to heal…

  Chapter 2

  Darcinda smiled at the adorable male grinning up at her from her exam table in the healing center. His baby blue eyes were swoonworthy, his laugh infectious, and he didn’t disagree with her at every turn. Exactly what she was looking for in a male. Too bad he was only six months old.

  She rubbed his tummy. “How are you doing, JT?”

  “He’s good,” his mother, Alex, answered. “He’s been getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. I think he’ll be crawling any day now.”

  “Well, aren’t you an overachiever?”

  “Bah, bah, bah,” JT chanted.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Darcinda said and started her exam.

  “Devin’s been reading and says babies normally crawl between six and ten months,” Alex said. “So he’s babyproofing the house in preparation.”

  Darcinda checked JT’s ears. “So you haven’t convinced your husband to stop reading every baby book he can get his hands on?”

  Alex sighed. “I’ve tried. I can’t believe I’m turning out to be the more laid-back parent. I keep telling Devin to relax. JT’s development is not a competition.”

  “Good for you. Do you have any concerns?”

  “He’s been a little cranky lately.”

  “JT or Devin?”

  Alex laughed. “JT. But he’s been drooling a lot too.”

  Darcinda ran her finger over his bottom gums. “He’s teething.”

  “That’s what I told Devin, but he wanted you to look him over.”

  Darcinda held her hand over JT’s head and concentrated as her healing senses expanded. She couldn’t sense any problems. “Has he shown any signs of magic?”

  “Not since he made my stomach glow before he was born.” Alex’s eyes widened. “Should he be showing powers already?”

  “Not necessarily. But since he’s faerie, elf, and human, it’s hard to predict what to expect.”

  “I think that’s what’s got Devin so worried. Not knowing what will happen next.”

  “Well, he’s not going to find those answers in the baby books he’s reading. That’s the adventure of parenting, regardless of the species.”

  Darcinda sat JT up and handed him a foam block. “He’ll be fine.”

  “JT or Devin?” Alex asked with a smile.

  Darcinda chuckled. “Both of them.”

  JT threw the block, and Alex bent down and picked it up, handing it back to her son. “You would think my abs would be perfect, the number of times I bend over and pick things up for him.”

  “Have you been able to manifest any powers?”

  Alex shook her head. “No. I guess I’ll never be accepted as a faerie.”

  Darcinda blew out a hard breath. “Being a faerie is more than how much power you can wield.” One of the reasons she distanced herself from most of her faerie clan. Time to change the subject. “Well, you look good, and you seem happy.”

  Alex smiled. “I am. JT is such a gift, and I love Devin with all my heart, neuroses and all. Plus the wedding planner business is going well. We have more paranormal clients than we can handle. And most of my friends are happily mated now.”

  Darcinda had first met Alex when the woman discovered she was supernatural. Darcinda taught her what it meant to be faerie. And Alex had returned the favor by pulling her into the fold. A fold that included her husband, Devin, and his teammates, who worked for the Tribunal keeping peace among supernaturals and helping hide their existence from humans.

  Alex had also made it her mission to find mates for Devin’s teammates. Even though Darcinda thought the Fates had played more of a role than Alex, she wasn’t about to say so.

  “You are a perpetual matchmaker,” she said instead.

  Alex shrugged. “I am. I can’t seem to help myself. Now Giz”—she shook her head—“I mean Tim , has found his mate, I can turn my attention to someone else.”

  JT flung the block again, and Alex picked it up. “Okay, buddy. Hold on to it for a bit.”

  He let out an I-don’t-think-so giggle.

  “Who’s your latest matchmaking project?” Darcinda asked.

  “I wanted to work on Peggy, but my sister-in-law threatened me. And since she is a high-powered elf, I take her threats very seriously. I was thinking about turning my attention toward the Demon Burrow.”

  Holy Fates. Hopefully she meant someone in the village. Darcinda wasn’t sure if Jamie and Andrew were ready for Alex’s matchmaking attempts. They were both still young and had plenty of time to settle down.

  “I’m trying to figure out who I could set McHenry up with.”

  Darcinda barked out a laugh before she could control herself.

  JT laughed along with her before flinging his toy. The yellow foam block bounced on the floor before settling under a chair.

  This time Alex didn’t bend down to retrieve it since she was too busy glaring at Darcinda. “What are you laughing about?”

  “Come on, Alex. McHenry is the demon equivalent of a porcupine crossed with a grizzly bear.”

  “I think he’s really a sweetheart underneath.”

  “I wouldn’t know. If I get within twenty feet of him, he blusters and curses my faerie existence.”

  “Bah!” JT exclaimed.

  “I’ll get your block in a minute, buddy.” Alex continued making her point to Darcinda. “McHenry’s all bark and no bite. I think he needs a mate. That should mellow him out.”

  “I’m not sure anything could mellow him out.” McHenry was big, burly, and foul-tempered, especially when Darcinda was around. And while her blunt style often got her in trouble, his anger stemmed from who she was, not what she said.

  “Well, you have to admit he played a part in the twins and Tim finding their mates. I think the least I can do is help him find his own.”

  “Better you than me,” Darcinda said.

  A gurgle sounded from the table. JT was busy chewing on the corner of the yellow foam block.

  Darcinda looked down at the floor. The block was no longer underneath the chair.

  Alex gaped. “How in the world—”

  Before Darcinda could respond, the door slammed open and Devin filled the doorway. He was frowning and out of breath.

  “What’s wrong, Devin?” Alex asked.

  �
�We got an emergency call from Jamie. Something happened in the Demon Burrow. We need Darcinda’s help.”

  Alex scooped up her son. “Oh no.”

  Darcinda nodded before turning to her shelf of supplies. “Let me collect a few things. Do we know who’s hurt?”

  “McHenry.”

  She looked over her shoulder at Devin. “Does he know you’re bringing me? He’s not going to want me there.”

  Devin shook his head. “Tough. He’s been outvoted, and he’s not in a position to object.”

  She packed some herbs and potions. “Did Jamie describe his injuries?”

  “He wasn’t making much sense. Something about flying metal and McHenry taking the brunt of it.”

  Darcinda opened her bag, stuffed in more ingredients, and marched up to Devin. “I’m ready,” she announced, whether she was or not.

  Even if he bellowed the rooftop off when he caught sight of her, the healer in her wouldn’t allow the stubborn demon to suffer—much.

  In less than half an hour the team had gathered and were hiking along the forest path leading to the edge of the Demon Burrow—to McHenry’s home. Werewolf twins Jack and Connor led the way, followed by Charlie, who was a sea nymph, and Tim, a warlock. Devin, their team leader and an elf, walked alongside her as they briskly made their way.